Feb 18, 2007

Co-opting CGC

Didn't take long. This new :30 TV spot for PSP mimics the whole YouTube homemade video thing, right down to the home video camera on "Nightvision" thing. Mostly notable for the technique and how quickly ad creatives took to mimicking YouTube. While not a brilliant commercial, this one works because it parodies a genre its target is intimately familiar with, rather than trying to pass itself off as an example of it

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have always loved these spots. I play the game so maybe I'm jaded too, lol. But I have to say the YouTube tone you're picking up on has been there in previous spots as well.

Look at the gravity bomb spot here and it's as if the Darwin Awards accepted video submissions.

Alan Wolk said...

Interesting MTLB- is it the same agency doing both spots? (And either way, do you know who did either one.)

Interesting article in the Journal last week about how video game makers seemed to have reached the saturation point in terms of audience, as gamers seem to "age out" as they hit their 30s and develop lives. And the responsibilities, jobs and children that go along with them.

Anonymous said...

TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Alan Wolk said...

Thanks. LA office, I'm guessing? (I know I'm a lazy fuck for not Googling it.)

Anonymous said...

Just to clarify, the "YouTube homemade video" you're referring to is more or just a "homemade video" thing, and it has been front and center in this camaign for the last two or three years at least. YouTube was just a glint in its now-wealthy-beyond-belief founders' eyes when this campaign first started running, home-video look and all. FYI. Check adcritic and ask a few twentysomething ad geeks/gamers if you'd like a second opinion.